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Re: The meetings in Sheffield and France

Hi Athel,

a picture of Robert Rosen to
go along with text which was to be part of a big anniversary issue
of some magazine. The story was about the "giants of the life
sciences"

I can't easily imagine who could be behind this!

I think the magazine is called Recherche or something like that. It's based in Paris, I'm told.

Unfortunately that is not how science advances -- it doesn't happen in little semi-private discussions between like-minded individuals, but in the public literature. People will not come to you: you have to expose your views to public scrutiny, even to public ridicule, by publishing them in publicly available journals. Even then you've a good chance of being ignored; but if you don't do it you have a near-certainty of being ignored.

I agree; it is unfortunate that science has traditionally been very closed to new work based on new ideas. However, while this description may have been the norm for scientific development in the past, it has been changing for a few hundred years, and much more rapidly today than ever before. Not only that, but almost everyone I've talked to laments over how the traditional publication route has become a lethal straight-jacket on science.

In addition, it's not quite fair to say that science doesn't happen in semi-private discussions between like-minded individuals, etc... Didn't the beginnings of Systems Science begin over a lunch between colleagues/friends? I further posit that it's time to put the internet to good use as an information-access technology and research aid. That's why I created the science journal, BioTheory. Things need to change.

Judith

Web address: http://www.rosen-enterprises.com
BioTheory: An electronic journal of general science based on the Relational (Rosennean) Complexity Paradigm
On Sep 8, 2005, at 11:38 AM, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

I wrote:

At a meeting in Sheffield ... I spoke a little about Rosen, and included the rash statement that few biologists had ever heard of him. This proved to be wrong, as several people told me afterwards that they had heard of him but that they had not been able to make sense of what he was saying,...

to which Judith commented
I would love to be able to talk to the biologists who have heard of
Robert Rosen but haven't been able to make sense of what he was
saying. Please feel free to direct them to me; they are welcome to
email me or simply read some of the material on the website...

Unfortunately that is not how science advances -- it doesn't happen in little semi-private discussions between like-minded individuals, but in the public literature. People will not come to you: you have to expose your views to public scrutiny, even to public ridicule, by publishing them in publicly available journals. Even then you've a good chance of being ignored; but if you don't do it you have a near-certainty of being ignored.
PS: I think people may be more aware in France, if a recent email I
received is any indication. They wanted a picture of Robert Rosen to
go along with text which was to be part of a big anniversary issue
of some magazine. The story was about the "giants of the life
sciences" and Dad's name was in a list with people like Schrodinger!

I can't easily imagine who could be behind this!

athel


--
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Athel Cornish-Bowden
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